This invention relates in general to the reproduction of sound and more particularly to an apparatus and process for simulating in reproduced music the acoustical characteristics of fine music halls.
Music when performed out-of-doors lacks richness and is often described as being dead, and while this music may not be unpleasant to the average listener, the listener nonetheless realizes that the music is deficient in some respect. More often than not he attributes the deficiency to the musicians. On the other hand, the acoustical characteristics of a few music halls throughout the world impart a high degree of brilliance and richness to music performed in them, and consequently these music halls can flatter the performances of otherwise mediocre musicians. Carnegie Hall in New York City has perhaps the best acoustics for performing both choral and instrumental music. London, Stockholm, Vienna, Belgrade, and Moscow also have very fine music halls.
Generally speaking, music performed indoors sounds far superior to the same music performed outdoors, and this difference is easily detected even by those who are not well versed in music, for the indoor music has a richness and brilliance that the outdoor music lacks. The difference is attributable to the acoustics of the enclosure in which the music is performed. For example, a musical sound when produced within an enclosure, will not terminate immediately, even though the sound is actually terminated at its source. Quite to the contrary, the sound tends to "hang on" since it continues to reflect off of the surfaces of the enclosure. The result is a decay which varies with frequency in that the high frequency sounds decay slower, or in other words hang on longer, then the low frequency sounds. In contrast to an echo, the reflected sound follows the initial sound so closely that it cannot be distinguished as a separate sound. The sound-prolonging characteristics of any enclosure are to a large measure dependent upon both the size and shape of the enclosure and also the materials from which the enclosure is constructed, particularly those materials that form the surface areas within the enclosure. Indeed, some materials even resonate, causing the listener to feel enveloped in sound, this being particularly true of the wood panelled music rooms of Europe.
Recorded music never seems to possess the richness and brilliance of live music, at least when compared with live music performed in a music hall of superior acoustics. Indeed, even when the recorded music is derived from a performance in a very fine music hall and is reproduced over the finest playback equipment, it still seems to lack brilliance and richness. Attempts to improve the quality of recorded music have resulted in the development of high fidelity, stereophonic, and even quadraphonic recordings, as well as highly sophisticated playback equipment for handling these improved recordings. In spite of these developments, it seems impossible to capture the acoustics of a fine music hall to the fullest extent.